[JayW UK]

2047 Off Season

The biggest story by far of the 2047 Off-Season was the potential sale of the Washington Generals, with a crumbling stadium, a dwindling fan base, a team that had been going nowhere for the last decade and an owner who had patently lost interest and was looking to get out, the Generals were ripe for a take-over. The stumbling block however was the asking price, team owner Howard Steinberg was not prepared to sell for less than $2 Billion, a figure that was too steep for most interested parties resulting in a damaging stand-off. While the shenanigans in Washington drew most people’s interest the rest of the league went about their business, Chicago fired manager Jorge Castro after three seasons and zero playoff appearances and set about searching for his successor. Phoenix chose to move on from Gomes Solano after a disappointing campaign while in Kansas City, Tucker Brown’s time came to an end after six largely underwhelming years. In Minneapolis Brian Walter called time on his career, announcing his retirement in the days after the Bears playoff exit at the hands of eventual champions Sanfrancisco while in Seattle Juan Campos announced he was stepping down from his position for personal reasons after three years in charge. Gomes Solano didn’t have to wait long for a new opportunity, accepting the Chicago job whilst his old team Phoenix promoted from within, naming bench coach Miguel Ramos as manager for 2047 and beyond. Another internal promotion took place in Minneapolis where bench coach Gabriel Cortez took the reins looking to continue the good work of his friend and mentor Brian Walter (the two having worked together for both Minneapolis and Seattle). To replace the outgoing Tucker Brown, Kansas City chose to raid the coaching staff of division rivals Omaha, enticing pitching coach Nathan Campbell on board with a five-year contract while Seattle turned to Las Vegas for their new manager, naming Gamblers bench coach Luis Chavez as their skipper.
The 2047 Free Agency period was one of the more active in recent memory with defending champions Sanfrancisco being one of the busiest teams. The Gold opened the period saying goodbye to several key players from their championship side, first star RF Francisco Perez left for St. Louis on a four year $75M deal, then pitcher Sean O’Lannigan joined Baltimore (3-year $50M) before veteran pitcher Cristobal Chapa (now 41 years old but still with something in the tank) left for Houston. To fill the void left by O’Lannigan and Chapa Sanfrancisco went on a spending spree, bringing in three new pitchers, former Detroit ace Nate Maddox (7yrs $142M), Jose Vazquez (4yrs $86M) from Las Vegas and LA’s Brent Brown (on a bargain 4yr $55M deal) to join staff ace Bryan Marburg and give Sanfrancisco (on paper at least) one of, if not the deepest starting rotation in the league. Defending EL champs Charlotte got in on the act landing former Atlanta pitcher Dillon Furr on a two-year $45M deal but said goodbye to 1B Blake Hanson, who bolted for LA, signing a 2-year pact to be the Lynx’s new first baseman. Two more big contracts were handed out to pitchers, first Las Vegas replaced outgoing Jose Vazquez with former St. Louis star Les Scott, handing him a five year $105M contract while New Orleans gave former Baltimore ace Brady Hoover an identical deal. To fill the hole left by Hoover, Baltimore turned to Omaha star Jacobie Harksdale, bringing him on board for $82M over the next four years. Denver opened the chequebook and spent big, bringing in former Minneapolis 2B Hector Torres (6yr $130M) and Houston RF Gustavo Reyes (3yr $60M), in an effort to replace Reyes’ production Houston chased both former Austin CF Colton Miller and Cleveland LF Robert Harris, the Stars landed Harris on a four-year $72M deal while Miller signed a lucrative six-year pact with Omaha.
The 2047 draft class was seen as one of the more enticing classes in recent memory, headlined by college stars 1B Hayden Heller (Texas A&M), P Radcliffe McCauley (St. Bonaventure), LF and defensive stud Curtis Troy (Oregon State), P Bob Barr (USC), P Eddie Mullins (LSU) and pitcher Angelo Hernandez (Connecticut). The top High School players in the pool were also arguably the two best prospects in the draft, 1B Tom Springer, who projected to be an offensive star capable of hitting .300/30 HR/100 RBI on a regular basis and all-American pitcher Louie Williams.
On draft night owners of the first pick OKC fielded multiple calls to trade down but eventually, when none of the trade offers blew them away, chose to stand pat and select high School 1B Tom Springer. Picking second Washington called the name of St. Bonaventure pitcher Radcliffe McCauley while Dallas used the third pick on high school pitcher Louie Williams. Baltimore made Texas A&M’s slugging 1B Hayden Heller the fourth pick before Charlotte rounded out the top five by taking USC pitcher Bob Barr. Connecticut pitcher Angelo Hernandez was selected sixth by Phoenix, Oregon State’s LF Curtis Troy was taken eighth by St. Louis before San Jose nabbed LSU pitcher Eddie Mullins with the tenth pick.
Looking ahead to the season, New York were expected to repeat as Atlantic Division champions with Philadelphia predicted to push them all the way, Boston were an enigma with no clear consensus of what to expect from them, some people seeing a strong season building on their 2046 campaign while others were predicting the Pilgrims to fall back. There were no such divides when it came to Washington, everyone agreed they were once again going to be the worst team in the league bar none. The Central division was likely to be a three-horse race between St. Louis, Detroit and Indianapolis while Chicago and Cleveland would need everything to go right for them to challenge. In the Southeast, Tampa Bay were expected to rise to the top once again, their nearest rivals Charlotte and Atlanta had both been weakened in Free Agency and would, at best challenge for the Wildcard spot along with New Orleans who were finally receiving some love from the pundits.
In the west, Denver and Minneapolis would battle each other for the Midwest division crown while OKC were expected to be much better than 2046 (although not enough to challenge for the division crown) and if everything went well, they would be in the WL Wildcard mix. In the Southwest, Austin, Las Vegas and Phoenix would once again do battle for the division title whilst in the Pacific Sanfrancisco were again expected to be top of the pile although both LA and Seattle would be in the running in the event of the Gold slipping up.